For Jon Montgomery, both the beer and medal were golden

Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun columnist11.23.2012

Canadian skeleton athlete Jon Montgomery celebrates his gold medal performance after his final run at the The Whistler Sliding Centre in Whistler, BC, during the 2010 Olympic Games, Friday February 19, 2010.Peter J. Thompson
/ Canwest News Service

Canada’s Jon Montgomery quaffs some liquid refreshment in Whistler in the golden aftermath of his Olympic first-place finish in men’s skeleton at the 2010 Winter Games on Feb. 19, 2010.

The pitcher that Canadian skeleton racer Jon Montgomery took a swig out of during his gold medal stroll at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler is on display at the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.Jenelle Schneider
/ PNG

Olympic gold medalist in skeleton Jon Montgomery shows off his medal after he arrived back in Calgary on Monday March 1, 2010. ID Number OLY013-21Gavin Young
/ Canwest News Service

Canada's Jon Montgomery celebrates with his gold medal, in Whistler, after winning the skeleton race at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games on Feb. 19. 2010 in Whistler.Mark van Manen
/ Canwest News Service

Olympic gold medalist in skeleton Jon Montgomery was all smiles as he arrived back in Calgary with girlfriend and fellow skeleton racer Darla Deschamps on Monday March 1, 2010.Gavin Young
/ Calgary Herald

Jon Montgomery celebrates the gold medal for the men’s skeleton on Feb. 19, 2010. The athlete realizes watchers may not remember his victory, but they won’t forget his celebration.Shaun Botterill
/ Getty Images

Canada's Jon Montgomery competes in the men's Skeleton World Championships in Koenigssee, Germany, on Feb. 24, 2011. Montgomery is about to test the results of a season away from skeleton racing.The reigning Olympic men's champion starts training on a new sled next week at Calgary's Canada Olympic Park. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Kerstin Joensson

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VANCOUVER — He is the most famous beer drinker in Canada, which is like being the most famous chef in France or the best-known penguin in Antarctica.

And Jon Montgomery is OK with that. He’d be even better with it if Canadian law allowed him to sign a lucrative advertising contract to endorse our national beverage, but never mind. Montgomery is neither embarrassed nor resentful that his defining moment as an athlete was a euphoric, charming, boozy victory stroll through Whistler Village after the skeleton racer from Russell, Man., won an Olympic gold medal at the base of Blackcomb Mountain in 2010.

As television cameras rolled live, Montgomery accepted a pitcher of beer from a woman outside Black’s Pub and without breaking stride consumed about the legal limit to safely operate heavy machinery. The only thing wrong with it, in hindsight, is that the fans parading with him and singing O Canada should have carried Montgomery along on their shoulders.

“If someone gives me a pint of beer, it’s not going to last very long after a race because I’m both excited and thirsty,” Montgomery said upon his return to Whistler this week for a World Cup event on Saturday. “I know that not everyone watched the (gold-medal) performance or even cares about skeleton racing. But if Canadians see themselves in a moment where you were being yourself and celebrating in a typical, Canadian fashion with a pint of beer, then I’m eternally grateful. I’ll always be proud of that moment.”

Truth be told, he has probably needed a couple more beers since then.

Montgomery will forever be a folk hero in Canada, the blue-collar athlete who brought the Olympic Games down from the mountain and gave them to the people. But as he trains today for Saturday’s World Cup event in Whistler — and with the 2014 Sochi Olympics less than 15 months away — the most heroic thing about Montgomery these days is his amiableness and patience.

The 33-year-old took all of last season off from competition in order to test and fine-tune a sled prototype developed for him by Standen’s Ltd, an auto parts and tools manufacturer in Calgary, where Montgomery is based.

Tired of seeing Canadians at a technological disadvantage in equipment compared to countries like Germany, Montgomery said he decided two races after his Olympic win in 2010 to try to build a better sled.

“It hasn’t been an easy task,” he said. “You learn a lot about yourself and how to deal with adversity. It’s just been tough to stay upbeat and positive about it. But you really have to remind yourself why you’re doing it and why you’re taking a step back, and allow yourself to be a little less competitive than what you aspire to.

“I talk a decent game, but actually buying-in and believing in it is the challenge. I won’t be defeated. I’m as stubborn as you’re going to find. But I think I may have to at some point put pride aside and say: ‘I wasn’t successful.’ That will be a reality I’ve got to deal with. But I won’t do it until I have to and I’m not there yet.”

Montgomery returned to competition this fall and used the third version of the Standen’s sled at events earlier this month in Park City, Utah and Lake Placid, N.Y. With finishes of 14th and 12th, Montgomery is tied with 11th in World Cup standings. Teammates John Fairbairn of London, Ont., and Kelowna’s Eric Neilson are eighth and ninth, respectively.

In New York, one of the steel runners on Montgomery’s sled broke, leading to an emergency weld by a track worker. Montgomery said his sled has superior aerodynamics and handling but: “The runners just aren’t parallel and in our sport they have to be absolutely true to have any chance of being competitive. If it’s not, you’re snowploughing, which is basically what I was doing.”

Standen’s is now working on the fourth — and probably final — version of the sled, which Montgomery hopes to begin testing next month. For now, he has gone back to the American-made sled he won with in 2010. But given his time off from World Cup and the sled project, Montgomery is finding even that transition challenging. He hopes for a top-six finish in Saturday’s race, which starts 3 p.m. at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

If nothing else, Montgomery should have karma on his side.

“I don’t know what I’ve done for people out here to get any karma, other than the fact I love Whistler, love the community and love the track,” he said. “I do have a lot of fond memories. I’d rather be in Whistler than almost any other place on Earth.”

He said he still wonders sometimes about the woman who handed him his victory brew. He was told she was visiting from England and, like everyone in Whistler who wasn’t on the mountain that day, was watching the Olympics on TV and saw Montgomery’s triumphant procession approaching the pub.

It became the most famous beer run in Canadian history.

“An English girl, also fond of ale, thought I looked like a guy who could use a pint or pitcher,” Montgomery said. “I was putting out that vibe; I had just come from doping control and the first thing I wanted was that pint of beer.

“If it’s something people can remember you for and it’s something as honest as a celebration where you were just being yourself and people can identify with, you’ve got to be grateful. When someone says to me they remember that moment, I’m never going to say: ‘But you don’t remember my victory?’ C’mon, I’d have to be a schmuck to think that way. It’s something I’m very grateful for. As an amateur athlete, if you have a defining moment in your career, you’ve got to be thankful for that.”

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